Field of the Invention
The disclosed embodiments relate in general to the field of electric vehicle charging technology, home electrical power storage technology and power grid management and, more specifically, to systems and methods for generating local autonomous response to electric grid conditions by electric vehicle charging stations and other controllable loads.
Description of the Related Art
Wide adoption of electric vehicles by general population requires availability of substantial electrical power capacities for purposes of electric vehicle charging. Depending on the electric vehicle and the charger used, each vehicle may require 40-200 amperes of charging electric current. As would be appreciated by persons of ordinary skill in the art, simultaneous charging of a large number of electric vehicles by residents of a neighborhood may place substantial strain on the existing local power grid, which may not have been designed to accommodate such simultaneous high power loads. With the development of new electric energy storage technologies, such as graphene supercapacitors, which may be charged to full capacity in a substantially shorter times compared to conventional lithium batteries, used in most electric vehicles, this problem of handling high simultaneous charging loads will be exacerbated. In addition to electric vehicles, many houses of the future will incorporate energy storage systems, such as Tesla Powerwall battery, which may also be charged from electric grid. Charging of such energy storage systems may also put additional strain on the existing grid infrastructure.
On the other hand, currently, electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE, a.k.a. EV charging stations) does not provide automatic responses to local grid conditions or to the changing needs of the larger electric power grid. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have the electric vehicle supply equipment as well as other power loads that would have the ability to sense to local power grid conditions and that would autonomously respond to such conditions for purposes of stabilizing local electric grid. Therefore, new and improved systems and methods for providing automatic responses to local conditions or to the changing needs of the larger electric power grid are needed.